Too few gynaecologists with 42% fall in doctors

Women are facing severe problems trying to find a specialist gynaecologist as numbers have fallen by nearly 42% in the last decade, to just 1,136 across France. It means busy doctors are having to turn away women looking for a specialist.

But, as for all medical services, some areas are worse than others and a study by Le Monde showed just 4.2 gynaecologists per 100,000 residents in Creuse, a department known to be a désert médical, while Dordogne has just 4.31 and 4.37 in Ain.

Meanwhile, Paris has 28.6 and affluent suburb Neuilly 67.4.

Assurance Maladie’s website shows the number of gynécologues médicaux, who deal with contraception, menopause, etc but not births, fell 41.6% from 2007 to 2017 as health authorities stopped teaching this speciality between 1987 and 2003.

Overall, France has 6,748 gynaecologists.